548 
DOWNING ON LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
Lf'e. Artists, we imagine, find somewhat of 
the same pleasure in studying wild landscape, 
where the very rocks and trees seem to 
struggle with the elements for foothold, than 
they do in contemplating the phases of the 
passions and instincts of human and animal 
life. The manifestation of power is to many 
minds, far more captivating than that of heauty. 
All who enjoy the charms of Landscape 
Gardening, may perhaps be divided into three 
classes : those who have arrived only at cer- 
tain primitive ideas of beauty, which are 
found in regular forms and straight lines ; 
those who in the Beautiful seek for the highest 
and most perfect development of the idea in 
the material form ; and those who in the Pic- 
turesque enjoy most a certain wild and in- 
complete harmony between the idea and the 
forms in which it is expressed. 
As the two latter classes embrace the whole 
range of modern Landscape Gardening, we 
shall keep distinctly in view their two go- 
verning principles — the Beautiful and the 
Picturesque, in treating of the practice of the 
art. 
There are always circumstances which 
must exert a controlling influence over ama- 
teurs, in this country, in choosing between 
the two. These are fixed locality, expense, 
individual preference in the style of building, 
and many others, which readily occur to all. 
The great variety of attractive sites in the 
older parts of the country, afford an abun- 
dance of opportunity for either taste. Within 
the last five years, we think the Picturesque 
is beginning to be preferred. It has, when 
a suitable locality offers, great advantages for 
us. The raw materials of wood, water, and 
surface, by the margin of many of our rivers 
and brooks, are at once appropriated with so 
much effect, and so little art, in the picturesque 
mode ; the annual tax on the purse, too, is so 
comparatively little, and the charm so great ! 
While, on one hand, the residences of a 
country of level plains usually allow only the 
beauty of simple and graceful forms ; the 
larger demesne, with its swelling hills and 
noble masses of wood (may we not, prospec- 
tively, say the rolling prairie too ?), should 
always, in the hands of the man of wealth, be 
made to display all the breadth, variety, and 
harmony, of both the Beautiful and the Pic- 
turesque. 
There is no surface of ground, however 
bare, which has not, naturally, more or less 
tendency to one or the other of these expres- 
sions. And the improver who detects the 
true character, and plants, builds, and embel 
lishes, as he should, constantly aiming to elicit 
and strengthen it, will soon arrive at a far 
higher and more satisfactory result, than one 
who, in the common manner, works at ran- 
dom. The latter may succeed in producing 
pleasing grounds — he will undoubtedly add 
to the general beauty and tasteful appearance 
of the country; and we gladly accord him our 
thanks. But the improver who unites with 
pleasing forms an expression of sentiment, 
will affect not only the common eye, but, 
much more powerfully, the imagination, and 
the refined and delicate taste. 
But there are many persons with small 
cottage places, of little decided character, who 
have neither room, time, nor income to at- 
tempt the improvement of their grounds fully, 
after either of those two schools. How shall 
they render their places tasteful and agreeable 
in the easiest manner ? We answer, by at- 
tempting only the simple and the natural; 
and the unfailing way to secure this is by 
employing, as leading features, only trees and 
grass. A soft verdant lawn, a few forest or 
ornamental trees well grouped, walks, and a 
few flowers, give universal pleasure ; they 
contain in themselves, in fact, the basis of all 
our agreeable sensations in a landscape gar- 
den (natural beauty and the recognition of 
art) ; and they are the most enduring sources 
of enjoyment in any place. There are no 
country seats in the United States so unsatis- 
factory and tasteless as those in which, without 
any definite aim, everything is attempted ; 
and a mixed jumble of discordant forms, 
materials, ornaments, and decorations, is as- 
sembled, a part in one style, and a bit in an- 
other, without the least feeling of unity or 
congr.uity. These rural bedlams, full of all 
kinds of absurdities, without a leading cha- 
racter or expression of any sort, cost their 
owners a vast deal of trouble and money, with- 
out giving a tasteful mind a shadow of the 
beauty which it feels at the first glimpse of 
a neat cottage residence, with its simple 
sylvan character of well-kept lawn and trees. 
If the latter does not rank high in the scale 
of Landscape Gardening as an art, it embo- 
dies much of its essence as a source of enjoy- 
ment — the production of the Beautiful in 
country residences. 
Besides the beauties of form and expression 
in the different modes of laying out grounds, 
there are certain universal and inherent 
beauties common to all styles, and, indeed, to 
every composition in the fine arts. Of these 
we shall especially point out those growing 
out of the principles of unity, harmony, and 
VARIETY. 
Untty, or the production of a whole, is a 
leading principle of the highest importance 
in every art of taste or design, without which 
no satisfactory result can be realized. This 
arises from the fact, that the mind can only 
attend, with pleasure and satisfaction, to one 
object, or one composite sensation, at the 
